Search - John Coltrane :: Bye Bye Blackbird

Chim Chim Cheree Live!

H. Lim | Carlingford, NSW Australia | 04/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"


This disc consists of four performances.



BYE BYE BLACKBIRD:

This performance is the same one on the Pablo album of the same name. It was recorded by Norman Granz in Paris in November of 1962. A long performance, but a terrific one.



INCH WORM:

This annoying tune was on the Pablo album "Live in Paris". A Frank Loesser song that shows off Coltrane's fierce Soprano style.



IMPRESSIONS/CHIM CHIM CHEREE

I believe that these two performances are from the Half Note nightclub in 1965, and are therefore a twin of the recent "One Up One Down" release.

Clearly someone has taped them off the radio - the sound is so bad I sometimes wondered if McCoy Tyner was using an electric piano! But the performances are unbelieveable.



This is the only known recording of Coltrane playing Chim Chim Cheree except for the very short studio version. As a fan of that six-minute version, I had always wished I could hear this rare 20 minute version from the Half Note.

Well, it was worth getting. This performance is absolutely unbelieveable. Coltrane's initial statement of the theme turns the original Mary Poppins tune into a mournful, slinking ballad. I cannot now hear the original tune without thinking of this theme statement. The following improvisation is earth-shaking - Coltrane's soprano work blasts the listener with Albert Ayler-style screeches and double-stoppped counterpoint. The original tune is never stated "straight", but always kept in mind through the endless improvisation.

Tyner's solo is strangely jaunty, recovering some of the childlike innocence of the original tune in a waltz-y countertheme that should be added to the original tune! Yet he too never refers directly to the original tune. Coltrane re-enters after a while in a screeching solo that lasts for ten minutes.



Truly this is a rare jewel of a performance."

A real treat

silly narwhal | Portland, OR United States | 09/27/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Don't be scared off by the sound quality of Chim Chim Cheree. It really ain't bad~ you can hear every member, and in fact Jimmy Garrison's bass is pleasantly higher in the mix than usual. Unless you're one of those audiophiles that lambasted One Up One Down for drop-outs and such (as if having the recordings at all isn't a gift from the sky), I would urge you to pick this up if you're a Coltrane Quartet Plays fan just for the live (19-minute!) Chim Chim Cheree. It's '65, so they're furious; Jones is a maniac. Of the same caliber, performance-wise, as One Up One Down. They must really have felt at ease for full exploration at the Half-Note.



The live Inchworm (from Paris Nov '62?) has some great honking from Coltrane, too, and is well worth having.



This can be gotten for cheap right here on Amazon. I'm giving four stars only as a respectful nod to official releases like Live At Birdland, where sound quality fully matches performance quality. But I'm really so glad to have this. These guys are just never less than staggering."